Automatic baling press

ABSTRACT

Baling press arranged with a power-operated door on each side and a power-operated ejecting mechanism. Power-operated locks are provided for the doors and manual control for each power-operated mechanism.

United States Patent [Ill 3,575,104

Inventor Dominick M. Aluotto Brooklyn, NY. Appl. No. 773,183 Filed Nov. 4, 1968 Patented Apr. 13, 1971 Assignee Aluotto, Antonio, doing business as National Baling and Equipment Co. Brooklyn, N.Y.

AUTOMATIC BALING PRESS 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 100/218, 100/3, 100/255 Int. Cl B30b 15/32 Field of Search 100/218.3, 240, 246, 252, 255

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,476,574 7/ l 949 Aluotto 100/244 3,131,626 5/1964 Sinclair et al. 100/218 3,172,351 3/1965 Sinclair et a1. 100/255 3,195,447 7/1965 Taylor 100/218X Primary ExaminerBil1yJ. Wilhite Attorney-Fannie, Edmonds, Morton, Taylor and Adams ABSTRACT: Baling press arranged with a power-operated door on each side and a power-operated ejecting mechanism. Power-operated locks are provided for the doors and manual control for each power-operated mechanism.

Patented April 13, 1971 3,575,104

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I

INVENTOR DOMINICK M. ALUOTTO 2 BY M M 'a Q QMA ATTORNEYS Patenfed April 13, 1971 3,575,104

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

INVENTOR DOMIN ICK M. ALUOT TO /{/5 ATTORNEYS AUTOMATIC BALING PRESS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Invention relates to baling presses for baling loose and bulk material such as waste paper, cardboard cartons, rags and like materials.

2. Description of the Prior Art g In baling presses as heretofore constructed the removal of large heavy bales has presented something of a problem and has required several operators to force the bale off the platen. Also heretofore the locks for the doors had to be operated by hand requiring considerable effort, and the doors themselves swung about their pivots also by hand which required great effort. Both these operations were time consuming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a baling apparatus which overcomes these difficulties. A power-operated ejecting mechanism is provided, the ejector being in the form of a pair of arms carrying a roller pivoted between their outer ends. Power is supplied to this arm preferably in the form of an electric motor and gear reduction, the electric motor having a manually operated controller for operating the motor in either direction of rotation. In using the ejecting mechanism the doors on the opposite sides of the baler are open and the arm is swung in, preferably from above and engages the upper portion of the completed bale which is resting upon the lowered platen, and tips the bale off the platen through the opposite open door onto a conveyor or truck, or other suitable receptacle.

In addition a power-operated mechanism, preferably employing hydraulic fluid under pressure, is provided for operating the locks for the two doors and additional mechanism of this kind is arranged to swing the respective doors about their hinges. Each of these power-operated mechanisms is provided with a manual control arranged in the vicinity of the conventional control for raising and lowering thev platen so that a single operator can cause'the entire operation of the baling apparatus not only in compressing the loose material, but in unlocking and locking the doors, opening and closing the doors and operating the ejecting mechanism.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a side elevation of the baling apparatus showing the front door closed and locked;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the apparatus looking from the right of FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The baling press of the invention has left and right end walls 5 and 6 of conventional hollow construction formed of steel plates suitably reinforced by appropriate structural steel members and interconnected by similar members.

The sidewalls are formed by front and rear doors 7 and 8 which are comprised of heavy steel plates reinforced heavily by means of parallel spaced angle bars 9 as shown particularly in FIG. I. The front door 7 is hinged to the front surface of left-hand end wall 5 by means of a vertical hinge rod 10 which extends from the bottom to the top of the door and passes through apertures in extensions of the angle bars 9 and in brackets ll bolted to the end wall face. Rear door 8 is similarly mounted on a vertical hinge rod 12 which is similar to rod Ill.

The top of the compression chamber or hopper of the baler is formed by a compression head 13 which comprises a stationary steel plate having narrow steel bars 14 mounted in closely spaced relation as shown in FIG. I leaving slots between them. The bottom of the compression chamber is formed by means of a platen 15 which may be seen in FIG. 3. This platen consists of a supporting plate 16 on which a series of narrow bars 17 are mounted which are similar to the bars of the compression head 13 and similarly spaced leaving slots between them.

Platen 15 as shown in the drawings is raised and lowered for compressing the balable material by means of a hydraulic plunger, although if desired it may be operated instead by a pair of endless chains vertically arranged within the hollow end walls 5 and 6, as shown in detail in U. S. Pat. No. 2,476,574 for Baling Press granted to Antonio Aluotto on Jan. l4, I949. The hydraulic type of operating mechanism is shown in the present application for ease of illustration and it will be understood that the illustrations in FIGS. 1 and 3 of this mechanism are of a diagrammatic nature.

The platen I5 is fixed to the upper end of a cylindrical plunger 18 and on the lower end of this plunger there is a piston I9 which operates within a vertical hydraulic cylinder 20. Hydraulic fluid such as oil under pressure is supplied to cylinder 20 by means of conduits 21 and 22 and it will be understood that a conventional control valve is employed for controlling the flow of the hydraulic fluid to and from the lower and upper portions of cylinder 20.

The front and rear doors 7 and 8 are respectively held in closed position during a compressing operation by means of vertically movable latch bars 23 for front door 7, and 24 for rear door 8. The ends of these latch bars engage the outer surfaces of extensions 25 of the uppermost and lowermost rein forcing bars 9 to lock the doors in closed position. To actuate.

these locking bars a conventional two-arm crank 26 is pivoted as shown at'27 to the inner ends of latch bars 23, and a similar two-arm crank 28 is provided for the rear latch bars 24. These cranks 26 and 28 are fixed respectively to the outer ends of two short shafts 29 and 30.

Shaft 29 is mounted for rotation in the casing of a hydraulic actuator 31. This mechanism includes lower and upper hydraulic cylinders 32 and 33 the pistons of which are interconnected by a toothed rack member whose teeth engage a pinion secured to the inner end portion of shaft 29. The detailed construction of this mechanism is shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,246,58l granted Apr. 19, 1966. A similar actuator mechanism (not shown) is provided with respect to shaft 30 for the actuation of latch bars 24 for the rear side door 8.

In order to provide hydraulic fluid under suitable pressure for the operation of actuator 31 and other similar actuators to be described, a hydraulic power unit 34 is provided. This comprises a tank 35 for hydraulic fluid such as oil and a motoroperated pressure-producing unit 36. From this hydraulic power unit 34 a high-pressure line 37 extends downwardly and is connected to each of four control valves namely two door control valves 38 and 39 and two latch control valves 40 and 4t.

A handle 42 is pivoted at 43 to valve 38 and is connected at 44 to the plunger of this valve. Valves 39, 40 and 41 are operated by similar handles illustrated in FIG. 2. Each of the valves 38-4l is connected as shown in FIG. 2 through a common low-pressure or return line 45 to the low-pressure side of tank 35.

The hinge rod 10 for the front door 7 is keyed or otherwise secured to each of the extensions of the angle bars 9 so that rotation of rod I0 in opposite directions serves to open and close this door. At the top of rod 10 and mounted on the lefthand sidewall 5 is another hydraulic actuator 46 which is similar to actuator 31 previously described. The pinion of actuator 46 is keyed to the upper end of rod 10. Actuator 46 is controlled by valve 39 and is connected thereto by means of two hydraulic lines, only the opposite end portions of which are shown (FIG. 1). Line 47 is connected to the right-hand cylinder of actuator 46 at one end and at its opposite end is connected to the inner end of valve 38. Line 48 is connected to the left-hand cylinder of the actuator and its opposite end is connected to the outer end of valve 38. To open door 7 handle 42 of valve 38 is shoved inwardly. This connects the high-pressure line 37 with line 47 and simultaneously connects line 48 with the low-pressure line 45. This places high pressure on the piston within the right-hand cylinder of actuator 46 and causes door 7 to swing open, it being understood that the latch bars 23 have previously been withdrawn. Right-hand door 8 is operated by an actuator 49 similar to actuator 46 and connected to right-hand valve 39 through similar highand lowpressure lines although these are not shown.

The hydraulic actuator 31 for operating latch bars 23 of the front door 7 is hydraulically connected with valve 40 by means of two hydraulic lines in all respects similar to lines 47 and 48 but not illustrated. Consequently when the handle of valve 40 is moved inwardly actuator 31 is energized to rotate the twoarrn crank 26 to a position approximately at right angles to that shown in FIG. I and thus cause the withdrawing of the opposite ends of latch bars 23 from engagement with the extensions 25 of the uppermost and lowermost angle bars 9. This unlocks door 7. It can be relocked at the proper time by operating the handle of valve 40 in the opposite direction. It will be understood that latch valve 41 can be actuated in a similar manner to control the actuation of two-arm crank 28 to unlock and lock the right-hand door 8.

The ejecting mechanism is best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. It comprises an electric motor 50 which is connected through a reducing gearing 51 to rotate a gear 52 at slow speed. Gear 52 meshes with a second gear 53 which is secured to one end of a horizontal shaft 54. Shaft 54 is mounted in bearings 55 which are mounted on the top wall of the baling press. Shaft 54 depends on the bale as to length and near its opposite ends two parallel arms 56 are secured by welding or otherwise. These arms support a roller 57 between them at their outer ends. Arms 56 advantageously are curved in side view as shown in FIG. 2 so that when they are swung to a downward vertical position the end portions of the arms carrying roller 57 will enter and advance substantially midway between the front and rear doors 7 and 8 of the baler as shown in FIG. 3. Bearings 55 for shaft 54 are positioned nearly vertically above the inner surface of front door 7, and consequently in the same relation to the point on the surface of the bale which ejecting roller 57 is to engage, so that the motion of the roller is in an upward direction along the surface of the bale, as indicated in FIG. 3, thus facilitating the ejection of the bale in a tilting position.

In order that the operator of the baling apparatus who is stationed in a location close to the valve control arms 42 for the four valves 38-41, may conveniently operate the ejecting mechanism, a controller 58 advantageously of the drum type and having an operating handle 59 is mounted on the side of the baling apparatus close to the four valves just mentioned. This controller is arranged to operate motor 50 in either direction of rotation so as to both lower and raise the ejector 57. The controller can also operate the motor at either low or high speed.

In the operation of the baling apparatus one of the doors 7 or 8 will be closed and locked and the balable material is deposited in the baling chamber. Platen 15 is then raised and compresses this material against the compression head 13. The platen is then lowered and more of the waste paper, cardboard cartons etc., are placed in the chamber and platen 15 is again operated to compress the material further. After a number of successive operations enough material will have been compressed to form a bale such as indicated by numeral 60 in FIG. 3. At the final compression platen 15 will be raised only to about a foot above the bottom of the chamber, and baling wire (not shown) is then applied around the bale while still in vertical position and held between platen I5 and compression head 13. The slots between bars 14 of the compression head and bars 17 of platen l5 permit the passage of the baling wire around the top and bottom of the bale. With the baling wire in place platen 15 is then moved downwardly to about 6 inches above the floor and this releases the bale so that control handle 59 of the ejecting mechanism can now be operated and this mechanism will tilt bale 60 off of platen l5 and it can be received on a suitable conveyor belt, truck, or otherwise.

lclaim:

I. In a baling press having sidewalls, end walls, and a top wall including a stationary compression head, and a platen, thus forming a chamber for receiving material to be baled:

means for raising the platen to compress the material and form a bale;

front and rear doors for the respective sidewalls;

means for operating the doors from closed to open position and vice versa;

and means for locking and unlocking said doors when in closed position;

the improvement in combination therewith which comprises an ejecting mechanism including;

a shaft supporting a pair of spaced arms;

a freely rotating bale ejecting roller carried between said arms at their free ends;

a pivot mounting for said shaft disposed nearly vertically above the inner surface of said front door;

power means for imparting reciprocating pivotal movement to said arms;

said arms being curved inwardly towards the interior of the baling press to cause said roller to move upwardly along the surface of the bale during the ejecting operation and advance the upper portion of the bale to a point not less than half the distance between said doors. 

1. In a baling press having sidewalls, end walls, and a top wall including a stationary compression head, and a platen, thus forming a chamber for receiving material to be baled: means for raising the platen to compress the material and form a bale; front and rear doors for the respective sidewalls; means for operating the doors from closed to open position and vice versa; and means for locking and unlocking said doors when in closed position; the improvement in combination therewith which comprises an ejecting mechanism including; a shaft supporting a pair of spaced arms; a freely rotating bale ejecting roller carried between said arms at their free ends; a pivot mounting for said shaft disposed nearly vertically above the inner surface of said front door; power means for imparting reciprocating pivotal movement to said arms; said arms being curved inwardly towards the interior of the baling press to cause said roller to move upwardly along the surface of the bale during the ejecting operation and advance the upper portion of the bale to a point not less than half the distance between said doors. 